


How Far We've Come

by orphan_account



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Gen, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 20:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1402039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They’re something like halfway between Amestris University and the nearby city of Xijing when the ancient yellow jalopy breaks down by the side of the road. Lan Fan smacks the fuel indicator with her free hand. The dial, evidently formerly frozen in place, swings down to <em>E</em>, and the driver puts her head on the steering wheel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Far We've Come

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt by my friend firus whose prompt I accidentally deleted out of my inbox [go me] but which generally requested Ling, May, and Lan Fan, modern AU, with a broken car and pop culture references.
> 
> All of my queer headcanons [and firus's] are in full force here. Note in particular that the line about May getting laid is a joke; she's ace, but that doesn't mean she can't joke about it. The title is a reference to the Matchbox 20 song of the same name.
> 
> Unedited/unbeta'd/etc. Enjoy and thank you for reading!

They’re something like halfway between Amestris University and the nearby city of Xijing when the ancient yellow jalopy breaks down by the side of the road. Lan Fan smacks the fuel indicator with her free hand. The dial, evidently formerly frozen in place, swings down to _E_ , and the driver puts her head on the steering wheel.

In the passenger’s seat beside her, Ling smooths the front of his dress over his knees. He pats her shoulder. “So,” he starts innocently, “who could’ve _guessed_ that the little arrow’d get all stuck like that?” Lan Fan grinds her forehead against the rim of the wheel, her knuckles paling, and Ling coughs nonchalantly.

May pokes her head through the space between the front seats. “Why’re we stopping?”

Before Ling can sweeten the explanation, Lan Fan grunts: “Out of gas.” May narrows her eyes. Balls her left hand into a fist and punches Ling’s shoulder.

“This is what we get for taking your piece of shit car!” she snaps. “I can’t _believe_ this.”

Ling folds his arms across his chest. “It’s not my fault! My dad said I’m not allowed to get a better car until I come home with perfect marks on my report.” He rubs the back of his head sheepishly. “And the next report’s not coming out for another few weeks, sooo . . .”

She scowls. “As if _you’re_ going to get perfect marks! Maybe if you double-majored in Eating and Sleeping with a minor in Distracting Actually Hardworking Students in the Middle of Class!”

Shrugging, he settles back into the seat as though it were a rocking chair and he were one of the farmers from the talkies, stray bit of hay in his mouth and all. Well, technically a broken-off strand of hair, but same difference. “Well,” he drawls, “I know not _everyone_ can loll around all semester and then get a perfect score on the exam anyway just because of how smart they are, but—”

May opens her mouth to interject. Lan Fan snaps her head up. “Shut up, both of you. Ling, get the map. May, make sure that we remove all the valuables from the car. Xiao Mei, don’t bite _anything_.”

Glancing from the darkening sky to Lan Fan to the first silver stars beginning to pepper the night sky, Ling arches an eyebrow. “What’s going on, Lan Fan? What’re you plannin’ here?”

She unlocks her car door, kicks it open, and unfolds herself onto the dusty road. “We’re walking.”

 

At his request they wait half an hour for another vehicle to pass by the winding road. The flatness extends out in either direction, broken up only by the occasional gentle hill. Aloud May wonders what Win and Ed and Al and Paninya are all doing after the rambunctious weekend together.

“Getting laid, probably,” Ling says jokingly with a nudge to Lan Fan’s ribs.

May smirks. “Like Lan Fan’n I will tonight, _huuuh_?”

Hiding her blush behind a wall of seeming apathy—her palms—Lan Fan sits cross-legged in the dirt and waits. Hand over his brow, Ling scans the very obviously car-less vicinity in search of a passerby whose vehicle they could hijack.

“So,” May asks dryly as the last hints of the sun fade out from behind the horizon and leave the wet ink of the night skies, “how goes the hunting of the snark?”

“Crumple-horned snorkark,” Ling corrects, turning himself on his heels to sweep the road. “I’m not interested in catching a boojum, you see.”

Lan Fan sighs and buries her face in her palms. “Call me when you’re ready to stop wasting everyone’s time. And patience.” Slowly she raises her head. “On second thought, I’d better keep an eye on you.”

May flops down by her side and tugs on the hem of her jeans. Xiao Mei leaps from May’s shoulder to curl up on Lan Fan’s.“Blink and he’ll vanish?”

Scratching Xiao Mei behind the air, Lan Fan smiles grimly. Ling spins himself around in a final pirouette and huffs out a sigh half of amusement and half of exasperated resignation.

 

He ties his high heels on the spare belt Lan Fan keeps in his glovebox and swings them around his neck. Lan Fan insists he wear her shoes. “I’m used to walking barefoot,” she claims, and May reaches out to clasp her hand tightly.

One-handedly Lan Fan holds the map. She and May track their location as best they can. The latter folds up the paper, creasing the corners. “Looks like there’s a village a few kilometres out. That’s our best bet.”

“When we get up there, if there’s no gas station, we’re still closer to Amestris U than Xijing,” Ling notes. “So we can just toss Winry’n the others a quick call. I’m sure they’d be willing to foot the bill, y’know? Come pick up or something.”

Lan Fan shoulders the makeshift ‘pack’ of anything useful. “We’ll have to call your parents, too. They must be worried sick.” She checks the plastic black wristwatch on her left arm. “We’re supposed to be home In ten minutes. But unless one of us manages to summon a couple of dragons out of the sky, we’re not going to make it.” A breath. “Griffins would also work.”

May shakes her head. “I’ll say that we stayed out a little late. My fault. I’ll say—that I was talking to Al.” She lowers her gaze apologetically to her feet, and Ling gently touches her wrist. Xiao Mei clings to his fingers. “You know, trying to figure out if I want to date him or not. Something that my parents’d like to hear.”

After a moment Lan Fan replies with a soft “ _oh_ ”, more of a noise than a word. “Of course.” Silence falls dark and deep as the steadily blackening night around them, the breeze picking up to chill exposed skin and flatten clothing to flesh. Ling presses his knuckles in the small of May’s back, pushes her forward.

She takes a step. Clicks her heels together. Cradles Lan Fan’s jaw in her cupped palms, drawing down her girlfriend’s chin until the two stand at eye level. May smiles; Lan Fan blinks with a steady pulse that touches her eyelashes to her upper curve of her cheek. Ling turns away respectfully, but the sound of quiet gasping and slick wetness curves the corners of his mouth nonetheless.

“There’s not much I like better than seeing my best friend happy,” he whispers to Xiao Mei, still perched in his palm, and the panda nods, “or seeing my half-sis happy. And when they’re both happy, _together_? Mmhm.”

Xiao Mei chirps in agreement. Laughing to himself, Ling scritches her head, just behind the ear, where he knows she likes it.

 

They walk. Ling’s dress flutters over his knees as the wind intensifies, and Lan Fan offers him her jacket. He takes it gratefully, zips it over the front, and wanders onwards by the light of the curved moon and the warmth of his best friend and his half-sister’s fingers intertwined in his.

They walk. On and on and on. His legs begin to ache, his ankles to throb, even in the comfortable flat-soled shoes of Lan Fan’s, a size or so too large for him yet comfortable nonetheless. Not quite _pain_ so much as an irritating discomfort so persistent that he can nearly feel his heartbeat in his very bones. But neither May or Lan Fan complains. And Lan Fan walks _barefoot_. He keeps his mouth in a tight line while Lan Fan rechecks the map and adjusts their course accordingly.

 

By the time they arrive in the tiny town of Liore, the stars spangle the sky and the moon watches over the zenith of its path. May dashes to the first payphone in sight; Ling and Lan Fan follow suit at a distance. Faint squelching sounds alert him. He looks down, behind them: a trail of scarlet from the pads of her feet outwards in a slightly curved arc that counts their movements towards the phone booth. “Lan Fan,” he says; his voice reveals his exhaustion more than he intended.

She watches him from behind heavy eyelids. “I’m fine.”

“You’re _bleeding_.”

“I’ve had worse.”

His hands twitch into tightly clenched fists. The sash around his middle feels tauter than usual as he inhales evenly. “C’mere. It’s my fault that the damn car ran out of gas.”

“I was driving,” she protests, but he catches her wrist and pulls her towards him like a dancer pulling in his partner. He spins her. Stumbling, Lan Fan catches her breath in her throat and he slows immediately, muttering apologies as if they were air. “I should’ve noticed.”

“I should’ve warned you the dial gets stuck a lot. Get on my back, would’ja?” Ling crouches. She hesitates, but he notices her legs trembling just enough for the motion to be perceptible. “A request from a friend, Lan Fan. And a thank you for letting me borrow your shoes. Repayin’ my debts and all that.”

“Equivalent exchange.” She snorts, but she swings a leg over his back and folds her arms around his shoulders. “You’ve been talking to Ed too much.”

Hefting her up, Ling struggles for a span of silence to adapt to her weight upon him. “Oi, oi, don’t fault _me_ for trying to find myself a datefriend.”

She chuckles. “Says the aro.”

“Hey!” Lan Fan squeezes her thighs around his sides, and he starts forward towards the booth. “Doesn’t mean I don’t have smooches.”

“Mmhm.”

 

May slams down the phone; she practically leaps out of the booth. Taking a step back to avoid being smacked in the face with sixty-something kilos of first year college student, Ling arches his eyebrows. “Where’s the costume change, Miss Kent?”

She lowers her volume to a conspiratorial whisper. Xiao Mei bristles on her shoulder. “Mom and Dad are pissed. _Really_ pissed. We’re going to get our asses bunt over a wall.” She pauses to give the two a once-over. “And you two are the _cutest_ QPs I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

Ling grins at her. Lan Fan squishes him against her and he nearly topples backwards; May grabs his arm to haul him upwards. A beat, and the three—the four, counting Xiao Mei—burst out laughing. Gorgeous, glorious laughter that floats to the moon and settles in the horn of the silver crescent smiling back at them.

When the mirth fades, Lan Fan heaves out a sigh. “We’ll think of something, May. We’ll get the car back, too. Ling.”

“As if I’m worried about that.” At Xiao Mei’s dubious chirruping Ling tosses his head back to laugh a second time; the sound of joy bubbles up from his belly to fall from his mouth in the most incredible way possible. “Right now, I’m worried about getting a hotel room and phoning our ‘Stris U friends and maybe even hearing you two say _I love you_ to one another.” May’s cheeks flush; though he can’t see LanFan, he would bet on his life that her face glows just as scarlet. “C’mon. We’ve got the _whole_ night to ourselves. Let’s make the best of it.”


End file.
